Croatian Strategy of EU Integration 2000-2007 – A Comparative Study
Croatian Strategy of EU Integration 2000-2007 – A Comparative Study

Summary/Abstract: Since the European Council established that Croatia met the conditions for becoming a potential candidate for EU membership in June 2000, the integration process directed towards candidature and full EU membership was the fundamental Croatian “national strategy” and foreign policy objective. In the period from 2000 to 2007 the process developed with “varying velocity” and varying levels of success. Our research objective is to identify and describe the strategic activity of the main external and internal collective actors involved in the process (the Croatian governments and the EU). Furthermore, we aim to evaluate the accomplished integrative results of their interaction in the observed eight-year period. Our analysis is based on the theoretical approach of actor-centred institutionalism and the game theory model. The result of the analysis shows that Dr Ivo Sanader’s one-party government (2003-2007) was more successful than Ivica Račan’s coalition government (2000-2003) in managing the integration process aimed at the accession of Croatia to the European Union. The impact and quality of EU support to the process was ambivalent, quite in accordance with the European Union’s ambiguous and complex structure and policy.

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